Tehran: Mohammad Mirmohammadi, aged 71 years, passed away after contracting coronavirus. He was the advisor of Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He was a member of the Expediency Council that advises Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Last Thursday, cleric Hadi Khosroshahi had died due to the virus. Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi are also ill.
Iran’s overall deaths
It may be mentioned that Iran’s overall death toll due to the virus climbed to 66. Apart from the deaths, the country reported 523 new confirmed cases of the infection.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that in the last 24 hours there were almost nine times more COVID-19 cases reported outside China than inside the country.
To date, 3,079 people have died from the new virus, while 90,160 have been infected in 73 countries and territories around the world.
Mainland China, excluding the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macao, has 80,026 cases, including 2,912 deaths. Elsewhere in the world, 10,134 cases have been recorded and 166 deaths.
Coronavirus spreads
South Korea remains the hardest-hit country after mainland China, with 4,335 cases and 26 deaths, followed by Italy (2,036 cases and 52 deaths), Iran (1,501 cases and 66 deaths) and Japan (254 cases, 12 deaths). More than 700 cases have by now been registered on the Diamond Princess cruise ship anchored in Japan.
In Germany the number of infected people has almost doubled over the weekend, reaching 157.
France, another coronavirus hotspot in Europe, has registered some 130 people infected since late January, three of whom have died.
The 27-nation EU raised the coronavirus risk to “moderate to high”.